By April 30, 2014, unless granted a 60-day extension, all Swiss banks participating in the US Department of Justice (DOJ) amnesty program will be required to provide substantial client information on its US account holders. We have previously posted on
12 years ago the IRS created the first-time penalty abatement administrative waiver (FTA), which allows typically compliant individual and business taxpayers to request abatement, or removal, of certain penalties that the IRS has assessed against them for the first time. In
The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) will definitely come into effect on 1 July this year with no possibility of further delay, according to officials of the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). FATCA, which was signed in March
We have previously posted on the U.S. Justice Department’s program offered to Swiss banks and targeted to identifying U.S. taxpayers that have not disclosed foreign accounts to the IRS. It has now been stated that that one-third of all Swiss
Last week, the U.S. signed six more intergovernmental agreements with a half dozen jurisdictions, including several traditional offshore tax havens, to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA. Over the past week, the U.S. Treasury Department has signed
The IRS may send a warning letter in lieu of asserting penalties for failure to file a Form TD F 90-22.1, “Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts,” if it would be sufficient to bring the individual into compliance, an
Swiss banks are pressuring current and former U.S. account holders to disclose undeclared assets to the Internal Revenue Service. In some cases, the banks are freezing accounts unless clients can prove they have declared the account to the IRS—or that
Last week the Tax Division of the Department of Justice strongly encouraged Swiss banks that want to seek non-prosecution agreements to resolve past cross-border criminal tax violations to submit letters of intent by the Dec. 31, 2013 deadline required by
Last year, the IRS announced its third offshore voluntary disclosure initiative. Like the earlier initiatives, the 2012 OVDP is designed to encourage taxpayers with unreported offshore accounts and assets to voluntarily disclose them to the IRS. The 2012 OVDP is
As of yesterday, three Swiss banks have agreed to participate in a U.S. disclosure program aimed at lenders suspected of aiding tax evasion by Americans. Many more expected and thousands of letters are being sent to US customers with Swiss
The new Form 8938 filing requirement does not replace or otherwise affect a taxpayer’s obligation to file FinCEN Form 114 (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts). Individuals must file each form for which they meet the relevant reporting threshold.
There are two types of penalties applicable to FinCEN Form 114 (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts) (FBARs): (1) Non-Willful and (2) Willful. The penalties are theoretically assessed per account and not per FBAR; however, in practice, our firm
Reporting on a California State Bar Tax Section Meeting, Tax Notes reports that the IRS will soon (as early as the week of 11/11/13) ) “begin examining U.S. taxpayers suspected of holding undeclared accounts in Indian banks, according to Nicholas
Responding to the needs of many filers who submit Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARs) jointly with spouses, or wish to submit them via third-party preparers, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) today introduced FinCEN Form 114(a), Record
The Internal Revenue Service on Monday launched an online registration program for the hundreds of thousands of financial firms around the world that must comply with a U.S. anti-tax evasion law or risk being shut out of financial markets. Starting
The Taxpayer advocate has issued a new mid-year 2013 report. The portion that relates to the IRS’s OVDI/P initiatives is posted below (footnotes and tables omitted). The IRS offered a series of offshore voluntary disclosure (OVD) programs to settle with
The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) has issued a new mid-year 2013 report. The TAS report discussion regarding optouts out of the OVDI/OVDP is interesting. For the 2009 OVDP (which was a smaller group of applications compared to 2011 OVDI), there
Top 4 Reasons to Opt Out of the 2011 OVDI Program 1. The IRS Taxpayer Advocate’s Report: Although the IRS has not closed very many opt-out cases, the average civil FBAR penalty assessed against those opting out of the 2009 OVDP
This month we remind taxpayers of the upcoming June 30, 2013 deadline for filing Form TD F 90-22.1, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR), to report financial interests in, or signature authority over, foreign financial accounts. There is
A New Jersey businessman who cooperated with prosecutors avoided prison after admitting he conspired with five HSBC Holdings bankers to hide his Indian bank accounts from U.S. tax authorities. Vaibhav Dahake, 46, was sentenced to one year of probation yesterday
Global bank HSBC has said it may face “significant” penalties from the US authorities with regard to an ongoing probe into suspected tax evasion by the US-based clients of its Indian unit, among other cases. The US tax department is
The Internal Revenue Service has collected over $5.5 billion in revenue from taxpayers who came forward and reported on their foreign holdings under its Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Programs, but it could be missing billions more in revenue from tax evaders,
The Internal Revenue Service’s four amnesty programs for those who have undeclared offshore accounts have resulted in more than 39,000 disclosures by taxpayers and more than $5.5 billion in revenues as of December 2012. A report Friday by the Government
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced that late yesterday a federal court in San Francisco entered an order authorizing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to serve a John Doe summons seeking information about U.S. taxpayers who may hold offshore accounts
The recent report from a government watchdog agency called the Government Accountability Office (GAO) shows how well the IRS attack on offshore tax evasion is coming. The GAO makes recommendations to the IRS, and the IRS pays attention. Those recommendations could put some taxpayers
Can I Disclose Issues to the IRS After the Tax Return Is Filed? This question is very important for our clients exploring silently disclosing previously unreported income on an amended income tax return. The general rule is that taxpayers are
Following the IRS’ successful 2009 and 2011 offshore voluntary compliance initiatives, tax professionals should expect an increase in IRS examination activity of taxpayers who did not enter into these compliance initiatives. Approximately 30,000 taxpayers entered into the initiatives. There are
IRS Special Agents are employed by the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) which is the law enforcement arm of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Special Agents conduct tax investigations that are intended to result in criminal prosecutions. They conduct criminal investigations
The 2012 National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) Annual Report to Congress criticized current IRS practices in the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) that hinder voluntary compliance by penalizing taxpayers who are entitled to a reasonable cause exception from willfulness. One of
When a taxpayer has a tax increase though a civil tax audit (or examination, in IRS terminology), a taxpayer has the right to appeal that increase administratively and through court, if unsuccessful administratively. For taxpayers not willing to accept the
